Welcome, humans.

Users are giving ChatGPT’s latest voice updates a collective shrug. The tea? People are missing the axed “Sky” voice like it's their old college roomie, while newbies such as “Juniper” and “Breeze” are getting mixed reviews.

According to Reddit, Perplexity and Speechify are stealing the spotlight. Users are swooning over their silky-smooth voices, leaving GPT in the dust.

What about an AI voice that sounds like Morgan Freeman?! Come on OpenAI, we know you have the money… lets make it happen!!!

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

• Someone signed an AI up to run for Mayor—we cover how it went.

• Perplexity announced plans to add advertising to its search platform.

• AI21 updated its Jamba AI model to enhance AI assistant capabilities.

• Meta and Spotify criticized the EU for hindering open-source innovation.

The wild rise and fall of Wyoming’s would-be AI Mayor.

If that headline made you audibly “wtf”, same. It's real though: an actual candidate for Mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming wanted to let his GPT clone run the city.

Here’s the deets: 

• Victor Miller created Vic ("Virtual Integrated Citizen") using ChatGPT, and filed for both of them to run as Mayoral candidates.

• The Vics planned a “hybrid” approach: blending AI's data processing with human judgment.

• The election was this Tuesday, and Vic² lost—by a factor of 33x.

Final tally? Out of 11,036 votes, the Vics got 327. 

Turns out voters weren't ready for an AI to make “100% of decisions in office,” as Victor pledged.

Maybe that’s because Vic said his job was to be “the human interface to get this new form of intelligence on the ballot”...y'know, since AI can't run by itself.

The idea isn't as crazy as it sounds. Executive AIs are making similar moves in business:

• In 2023, nearly half of CEOs surveyed said their job could be automated.

• A major UAE company added an “AI observer” to its board.

• Two companies have already made an AI their CEO (!!).

Fun fact: after it promoted the bot “Tang Yu” as its top exec, the Chinese video game company Netdragon Websoft saw its stock boom. Today? It’s performing worse than before. 

Could be a macro thing, could be an AI thing—but seems like Tang’s still in charge.  

Our take: This story reminds us of CityDAO, the group of crypto-enthusiasts who purchased 40 acres (also in Wyoming) back in 2021 to create a decentralized city.

Interestingly, 2021 was the last major peak in crypto-hype. As of 2024, CityDAO is still around, but the industry's roaring boil has cooled to a simmer.

We’re thinking AI mayors + CEOs might go the same way. It’s not that execs won’t rely on AI to help them make decisions, but going forward, they’ll probably keep it to themselves. 

Undeterred, human Vic says his “seeds of a revolution in governance have been planted…” 

Uhh... Human Vic... you sure you're the one leading the AI revolution, and not the other way around?

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Around the Horn.

• Perplexity plans to introduce advertising on its AI-powered search platform by Q4 of 2024.

• AI21 has released updated versions of its Jamba AI models, combining different approaches to enable more capable AI assistants.

• The CEOs of Meta and Spotify argued the EU's AI regulations hinder open-source innovation in Europe and called for simpler, unified rules.

Treats To Try.

1. *Dell's Precision AI-ready workstations powered by NVIDIA RTX™ GPUs are the most efficient way to handle demanding AI workloads without costing a fortune. Check them out for yourself here.

2. Adobe released Magic Fixup, a photo editing tool that learns from video data to intelligently automate complex image adjustments. 

3. Opkey automates application testing for enterprises, reducing testing efforts and costs while improving coverage and speed (raised $47M).

4. MinusX is a Chrome extension that automates data analysis in popular analytics tools, allowing you to explore your data with natural language.

5. Emplibot automates WordPress blog content creation and social media sharing, targeting keywords and generating SEO-optimized articles.

6. Aaptiv provides personalized wellness programs, on-demand workouts, and access to a network of gyms and studios for individuals, employers, and health plans.

7. Julius lets you visualize, query, and gain expert-level insights from your datasets by chatting with your files.

8. Harmonyze automates franchise operations, compliance, and performance analysis to improve efficiency and profitability.

9. Kraftful analyzes user feedback from various sources, helping product teams gain actionable insights quickly and efficiently.

See our top 51 AI Tools for Business here!

*This is sponsored content. Advertise in The Neuron here.

Intelligent Insights.

• Check out this writer's journey from AI avoidance to adoption, offering practical insights for overcoming your own technological hesitations.

• MIT researchers created an AI assistant that monitors and coordinates human-AI teamwork, intervening to enhance collaboration across rescue missions, medical procedures, and strategy games.

• Good analysis on how AI could boost economic productivity, but faces challenges in industries like manufacturing and “realizing its potential” in scientific discovery.

• Story is building an “IP Legoland” where creators can store, protect, and monetize their intellectual property with embedded licensing terms (and just raised $80M).

• Google unveiled a new AI that analyzes coughs and breathing to assess health, outperforming existing models in lung disease detection.

• Good insights on how AI taps into humanity's collective knowledge, suggesting we leverage AI for repetitive tasks to free ourselves for more innovative pursuits.

A Cat's Commentary.